The concept of public figures getting caught up in racist scandals isn’t exactly brand new – many a good reputation has been permanently tarnished thanks to misspoken words and overheard conversations.  Even though their careers are getting back on track, people won’t be forgetting the ignorant words of Don Imus or Mel Gibson anytime soon and their brands now have entirely different connotations.  However, the entertainment world was still rocked a few weeks ago when John Mayer’s offensive and way-too-honest interview with Playboy Magazine was released. Read the rest of this entry

Since the majority of us PR professionals work for agencies where we have a variety of different companies as clients (maybe I’m just imagining this, but that’s definitely the way it seems), there’s a sector of communicators that we all tend to forget about- the straight up publicist.  More specially, celebrity representation.  However, somewhere off in the great, big state of California (pardon me for my generalization), there lives a whole lot of people who work incredibly hard to keep the reputations of their clients squeaky clean, or at least a little bit less awful than they already are. Read the rest of this entry

As someone who’s been using Foursquare since it was in its ghetto/doesn’t always function/impossible for you to add a new location phase, I’ve found it very entertaining to watch this platform grow.  As it becomes increasingly accessible, more and more people have started to use it (especially since the Blackberry app came onto the scene!).

For me, the defining moment of when Foursquare had become “acceptable” was when my boyfriend started to use it after months of making fun of me for insisting on telling the world where I was.  I never thought that moment would come!  Besides its growing popularity, I’ve also noticed an increase in discussions surrounding its purpose and the proper way to use it.  In fact, TJ wrote a post about her foray into Foursquare just last week.  This is to be expected for any new medium, just as we saw with Twitter before.  Read the rest of this entry

By now we, as PR professionals, understand the dangers of social media when it comes to speaking your mind in the blogosphere, Twitterverse, or any other strange word that someone has coined to describe an online space. We know that talking smack about your boss on Facebook can get you fired and that it might be a wise idea to make your profile private if you plan on posting a lot of pictures of you drinking yourself into oblivion. Armed with this knowledge, an overwhelming amount of professionals are finding SOME way to make their mark in the social media world, even if it’s just so that something positive shows up when their name is Googled. Read the rest of this entry

A similar version of this post can also be found at Legends of Aerocles.

As I get ready to leave the job that I’m currently at and embark on a new and incredibly exciting opportunity, I’ve decided to do a little bit of reflection at the suggestion of David, one of my social media mentors. When I took a position as an “intern” at the small NJ agency that I worked at during my senior year of college, I had no idea how much I would learn.  Since it was my responsibility to teach the rest of the company about it, I had no choice but to throw myself head-first into the world of social media. Read the rest of this entry

In the past month or so, I have been constantly utilizing the amazing insight and invaluable advice of my many PR “mentors” (the reason why will hopefully be revealed soon). This morning I was thinking about how lucky I am to have all of them, and it got me wondering about the nature of a mentor/mentee relationship. Mentor is a word that I toss around quite a bit, which is interesting because technically a person is only supposed to have one. So am I just using the wrong word to describe the people I go to for PR advice, or has the definition of a mentor shifted? Read the rest of this entry

Before we kick off Pitch Yourself Round 2, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all the fantastic feedback we’ve received so far on this intiative.  We’ve heard from many people who agree with us about the value we are offering our job-hunting readers with this opportunity- and that’s exciting!  (By the way, if you’re new to PRBC and Pitch Yourself, read all about it here). Round 2 was just as fun to put together as the first one with Holly Grande, and we hope you enjoy checking it out. Read the rest of this entry

Are you currently in a state of withdrawal due to a lack of Paula Deen’s y’alls? Guy Fieri’s awful backward sunglasses?  Ina Garten’s use of the phrase “Good Vanilla”?  Even Rachael Ray completing a spin of EVOO around the pan?  Then you must be a fellow member of the unfortunate club of people who depend on Cablevision for all their television needs. Even if you weren’t one of the unfortunate souls who turned their TV on the morning of January 1st and realized they couldn’t watch Food Network or HGTV, it’s likely you’ve heard of the current controversy. Read the rest of this entry

After recently talking with PRBC-ers Marie and Sherri about how Twitter can sometimes stress us out (and Marie’s own issue), I realized that everyone has their own personal Twitter dilemma. Mine? You might be able to guess it on your own, but I’m constantly grappling with whether or not I should change my username.

I joined Twitter when I was in college, while working at my internship. At the time I (and most other people) didn’t realize its full potential. I just knew that a lot of PR people were talking about it and that it was something I should check out. I also knew that I loved Juicy Couture and that I wanted my name to be in my handle- tada! Jessisjuicy was born. Read the rest of this entry

Editor’s Note: A special post-counterpost from two of the PRBC bloggers to end 2009 with a bang.  For the counterpoint be sure to check out Keith Trivitt’s post.

I’ve recently become obsessed with FourSquare.  I can’t seem to stop myself from “checking in” places, and now that they’ve made it easier to add new venues, I’ve become the resident scout for my town in New Jersey.  So you can imagine how sad I was when my buddy Keith told me that he’s not a fan of the service.  However, I know that he isn’t alone- many people are questioning the point of FourSquare and other location-based applications. Read the rest of this entry